Secondary Parents Council v. Newark Public Schools

In November 2013, the ACLU-NJ filed a complaint on behalf of the Secondary Parents Council after the Newark Public Schools (NPS) denied their OPRA request documents that had previously been disclosed to a private foundation. The request was denied on the grounds that it was considered to be advisory, consultative, and deliberate material. The ACLU-NJ argued that because NPS already released the records to a non-governmental entity, the records did not meet the exemption’s requirements. Regardless of whether the denied documents were at one time considered exempt to OPRA, the exemption was waived when the records where disclosed to a third party. In Spring 2014, NPS agreed to disclose the documents.

Case Information

Newark Public Schools refused to disclose documents that had been previously disclosed to another organization.